DFES provides free classroom activities and lesson plans for Year 3 to Year 6 teachers and their students. All excursions, lesson plans and classroom activities are linked to the Western Australian Curriculum and Reporting Outline.

The Home Fire Safety Program is a WA Curriculum-linked fire safety education program. It is designed to provide developmentally appropriate fire safety prevention messages and life-saving tips on how children can respond to a fire emergency in their homes.

The program includes classroom resources, a firefighter school incursion (Year 3 only) and an excursion to the Education and Heritage Centre (Years 2 to 6).

Career firefighters visit Year 3 students in metropolitan Perth and larger regional centres. Teachers can contact their local metro or regional fire station to book an incursion. Incursions are free and run for approximately 60 minutes.

Volunteer firefighters may also be able to visit your school. Contact your local service to find out more.

Bushfire Patrol includes DFES’ bushfire resources for teachers and students who live in the southwest land division of Western Australia. Bushfire Patrol aims to raise students and their family’s awareness, perception of risk and shared responsibility around bushfire in the community.

Bushfire Patrol is an award winning education resource, winning the State Division in the 2014 Resilient Australia Awards in Western Australia and receiving a Highly Commended Award at the national 2014 Resilient Australia Awards in Canberra.

Bushfire Patrol was developed in partnership with the Department of Education (WA).

The teaching resources include 5 lesson plans. The online games are missioned based and can be used as an introduction to lessons 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Involving Parents – Take Home Tasks

The effectiveness of Bushfire Patrol depends partly on some interaction between school and home, involving families in bushfire preparedness and planning activities.

In lesson 4, Bushfire Patrol asks students to conduct a Risky Building Survey (Year–Year 4) or Preparing Your Property Before the Bushfire Season Checklist (Year 5–Year 6) at home and discuss it with their parents and/or carers.

Students prepare a basic Bushfire Survival Plan in lesson 5. DFES encourages teachers to ask students to discuss and develop a Bushfire Survival Plan with their families. Students return to school with their advanced solutions and ideas that have arisen from discussion with their families.

To maximise parents and carers involvement in Bushfire Patrol, teachers can direct them to the resources listed below to help prepare themselves further and involve their children in planning for bushfire:

There is currently no formal incursion or guidelines for the Volunteer Bushfire Brigades or Emergency Services to visit students in Year 3 to Year 6.

Bushfire Patrol asks you to invite the local volunteer bushfire brigade or emergency services unit to your school to discuss their bushfire experiences and what to do during a bushfire threat. Please understand that due to the firefighters being volunteers and their operational requirements they may not have the capacity to visit your students.

If your local volunteer bushfire brigade or emergency services unit can attend, please discuss what you would like them to talk about prior to their visit. You may want students to prepare the questions that they would like to ask firefighters to answer. If you can, let firefighters know these questions in advance. A visit could include:

A discussion about safe and unsafe fire

How to respond to a bushfire Consequences of bushfires on firefighters, the community and the environment

North West Bushfire Patrol includes DFES’s bushfire resources for teachers and students who live in the North West land division of Western Australia. North West Bushfire Patrol aims to raise student awareness of bushfire risks and consequences; whilst developing a range of skills to help them prevent and respond to bushfires. North West Bushfire Patrol was developed in partnership with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions.

Students are able to explain when bushfires are most likely to occur in the Kimberley region and can determine bushfire weather and times when it is safe to have a fire. Students are able to locate the Fire Danger Rating for their local area and understand its purpose.

Students understand that bushfires have a largely negative impact on our community but that community members can prepare for bushfires to lessen the impacts. Students understand the impacts of fire on the natural environment and identify how differing fire patterns have differing impacts on plant and animal populations.

Students understand how fire regimes have changed over time, from pre-human to Aboriginal to current fire regimes and can identify key personnel involved in fire management in North West Australia. Students understand that cultural values, biodiversity and the economy are all considered when fire management strategies are developed.